It is well known that in the first few months of life a baby will respond to high contrast images (which are images where there is significant tonal gradation between the highlights, midtones, and shadows) and then, as the baby matures, to full front views of actual faces of people and anthropomorphic animals. As the baby matures from an infant to a toddler, the baby will rapidly learn to recognize familiar views of humans, animals, and everyday objects. The developmental response to realistic images, particularly photographic images, has been shown to be linked in the first few weeks and months of life to the maturation of the eye and brain, and then, thereafter, to the baby's general overall cognitive skills. Images also stimulate infants' and toddlers' emotional responses and hand-eye coordination. Images used for such visual stimulation include graphics, but as the babies age beyond three months they can recognize lower contrast images and higher definition photographs. Thus, these types of images are preferred for older babies.
Such images many times are presented in a book format. The book format offers convenience (i.e., numerous images compiled together in a flat and easy to see format), and potential educational benefits (i.e., an introduction to books, which may foster a desire to read in the future).
Children's books come in board (paper), soft plastic, wood, or fabric. Board books generally offer higher resolution graphics than the other types of books but, many times, the graphics are presented in a way that does not effectively stimulate a response from babies. For example, many photographs are too complex, taken from unfamiliar angles, do not have sufficiently high contrasts, or do not have sufficiently high resolution. Even when the board books contain photographs that are effectively stimulating, board books are not ideal for infants and toddlers because they have sharp corners, are not easily disinfected, and are generally heavy. In addition, babies have a tendency to grab and chew anything they can get their hands on, or their mouths to. This includes books. When a baby chews a board book, the edges of the board will start to disintegrate, and once the board breaks down, it will become a choking hazard.
Wood books comprise thin wooden pages with printed images. Wood books typically have holes in them such that the individual pages may be bound with string or plastic. Wood books are heavy and can be dangerous. Image quality on wood books is limited to silk-screen printing techniques or heat transfers where the transferred images do not sublimate into the wood. Because the ink does not sublimate into the wood, it can be scratched off, creating potential a choking hazard.
Plastic books comprise sheets of thin polyvinyl or similar plastic, and are typically used as “bath books.” The sheets may be printed and heat sealed around a foam filling. Plastic books, as with board books, tear and degrade into small parts. The plastic material is not soft. The image resolution on the plastic sheets is limited to silk screen mass production resolutions in the order of 120 dots per inch (dpi), although they can run higher (e.g., 300 dpi) at slower mass production speeds. However, there is significant dot gain, which reduces image contrast. Images can be applied through heat transfer, but not sublimation. To ensure that transferred images are not scratched off, the images are typically printed on the inside of the plastic. The result is that the plastic “clouds” the contrast of the image.
In contrast to the above-mentioned books, typical fabric books are lightweight, soft, disinfect easily by washing, and substantially maintain their integrity after repeated handling. As a result, fabric books are ideal for babies. However, attempts to provide high resolution graphics in fabric books using current technology encounter significant drawbacks. The main drawback is that current printing technology used for printing on fabrics, i.e., photo transfer, silk screening, and offset printing, causes the ink material to lie on top of the fabric and/or stiffen the printed fabric surface. A fabric book made by one of those processes may contain high resolution printed images, but the resulting book loses the benefit of having the soft fabric, is more difficult to wash, and presents an additional hazard to a baby from the flaking of the ink over time.
Another current printing technology for fabric books, sublimation printing, overcomes these drawbacks and keeps the fabric soft but has other drawbacks, including significant alteration of the color balance of the original art, and significant degradation of the resolution and color balance of the printed image due to the woven texture and light reflectance of printed fabrics. The fabric of a fabric book made by this process substantially maintains its original softness after printing, but the printed images are not high resolution images.
Therefore, there is a need for a fabric book with high resolution printed images that substantially maintains its original softness after printing. There is also a need for a method of printing high resolution images in fabric (particularly fabric used in fabric books) that allows the printed fabric to substantially retain its pre-printed softness and be safely handled and manipulated.